Operator 13 is a 1934 American pre-Code romance film directed by Richard Boleslawski and starring Marion Davies, Gary Cooper, and Jean Parker. Based on stories written by Robert W. Chambers, the film is about a Union spy who impersonates a black maid in the early days of the Civil War, but complications arise when she falls in love with a Confederate officer. George J. Folsey received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography. The film features the Four Mills Brothers and Davies performing musical numbers and the supporting cast includes Ted Healy, Douglas Dumbrille as Jeb Stuart, Sidney Toler as Allan Pinkerton, Fuzzy Knight, and an uncredited Sterling Holloway as a wounded Union soldier. Plot In the American Civil War, Union forces are reeling after their defeat in the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Pauline Cushman Players are performing for wounded soldiers at a Union military hospital. Pauline, a spy who works for Allan Pinkerton, recommends her close friend and fellow showgirl Gail to become a spy for the Union cause as Operator 13 (the previous Operator 13 having been caught and shot). Gail, disguised in blackface, accompanies Pauline south as her octaroon black maid. The Confederates become aware there is a spy in their midst, and Captain Gailliard is asked to help find out who it is. While washing General Stuart’s clothes, Gail hears he will attend a ball that night. At the ball, Captain Gailliard suspects that Pauline is a spy and finds evidence in her room. Pauline, trying to flee, is arrested and Gail is forced to testify against her; refusing to divulge her contact, Pauline is sentenced to death. Both women manage to escape and return to the Union lines. Pinkerton decides to use Gail to trap Gailliard, and as part of the plan, she jeers at a parade of Union soldiers and is thought to be a heroine in the Southern newspapers. Gail, as Anne Claibourne, is pardoned by Lincoln and heads south, where Captain Gailliard is attracted to her. However, Gail is later told by Stuart's groom, a fellow spy, that she is known to be a spy and she flees in a Confederate uniform. Gailliard grabs her horse, but she strikes him with a gun and rides off with the groom. Gailliard and others pursue them. The fugitives hide in an abandoned farmhouse. Gailliard finds her. Fortunately for her, a group of